All About TUSO

 

    TUSO (Taipei Medical University Service Overseas), the first oversea service team in Taiwan that travels to the third world to promote humanity and educate locals, was found in 2003. TUSO has won various awards including: Third place in Exceptional volunteer group awarded by Executive Yuan, Exceptional International medical service documentary awarded by Taiwan Dental Association, and Top ten service team of outstanding youth award awarded by Distinguished Citizens of Society. President Ma will present the prize of Top ten service team award.

    TUSO has an experience of eight years in performing dental services in South India. Beneficiaries of our services include Tibetan communities, Tibetan monasteries, disability center, middle and primary schools of rural areas. Beyond emphasizing oral hygiene and disease prevention educations, TUSO further cooperates with local medical centers.Temporary medical service booths are set to provide professional dental services with our portable dental treating units along with other equipments and medications. Despite of any difficult situations, TUSO try our best to maintain mid to long term medical care.

    Directed by Ling Li-Hsiang, TUSO interviews and recruits 12 to 15 dental students and several dentists. TUSO is a highly student-oriented group where preparations including collecting fund from sponsors, purchasing and borrowing treating equipments are all carried out by students. Training courses for the students include dental related courses and infection control courses. Moreover, students participate as externs in the dental department of different hospitals and serve in various community services.

    In the summer of 2014, TUSO provided medical service in south India for 4 weeks, traveling to 7 locations for 2 to 7 days. Our dental treatment was acquired by 806 people. TUSO performed 1002 decayed tooth filling, 114 tooth extractions, and 262 person-time scaling. Aiming to reach the goal of “prevention is better than cure”, we emphasized on our oral hygiene educations. More than 1850 people participated in our oral hygiene education session. Other than dental related topics, we also look into the local needs and educate the people on preventions of tinea capatis and mosquito reductions. According to the oral check up and epidemic statistics, astonishing results over the past eight years thrilled not only the locals but also our service team. Rewarded with great appreciation, we now seek for more opportunities to serve in the places that need our assistance.